LITERATURE

Mumbai: The inaugural edition of a literary festival "Lit o Fest", that begins on February 28, will touch upon the topics of decline of Parsi population, relevance of Hindi in today's time and beauty of Urdu in poetry, organisers said on Monday.
The festival will have speakers from the world of...

Stockholm: Leaking names of writers shortlisted for the Nobel literature prize may lead to their disqualification from the prestigious award, the head of the prize jury warned on Thursday.
"There are nominators who like trumpeting in public which person they nominated," Peter Englund, who is also the permanent secretary of the...

Mumbai: Praising Viacom18 and Film Heritage Foundation's initiative to save India's cinematic heritage, veteran writer-lyricist-filmmaker Gulzar says film restoration, which has been neglected for a long time in India, equals preservation of culture.
"Handling old films, restoring them and preserving them is like preserving your culture," Gulzar said.
The Film Heritage Foundation...

It is at times good to find a piece like 'Making India' which gives a broad insight from Historical events that lead to the contemporary developments. The Modern Indian history is an outcome of various happenings that took place in 18th and 19 century and Prof Makarand Paranjape, the author...

Jaipur: Filmmaker and biographer Nasreen Munni Kabir decided to write about yesteryear's actress Waheeda Rehman, because her life is 'fascinating'.
At the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival, Kabir about old cinema and the veteran actress and how she was hesitant about opening up in front of the biographer.
"She (Waheeda Rehman) was hesitant...

Jaipur: The 92-year-old senior Supreme Court lawyer and former BJP leader Ram Jethmalani was in conversation with author Shobha De and journalist Madhu Trehan during a session titled 'The Devil's advocate: Ram Jethmalani'.
1) "Between God and Devil, I still have some respect for the Devil."
2) "God suffers from an acute...

Jaipur: As soon as Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy came on stage at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival, he apologised to the audiences.
"I'm sorry I'm wearing a suit and tie today. I know this is not the occasion," he said to an audience that burst into laughter.
Murthy, who's wife Sudha...

Jaipur: The eighth edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival, the world's largest free literary festival, ended on a high today as the festival announced 2,45,000 recorded footfalls over the five days -- a record number.
The festival has seen a doubling of international visitors from 50 difference countries, and a 40...

Jaipur: Popular author Chetan Bhagat on Sunday spoke about his stint in Bollywood, and the amount of research and effort he had to put into his work.
Bhagat, who had written the script for the Salman Khan blockbuster 'Kick' along with filmmaker Sajid Nadiadwala, spoke about the difference between writing a...

Jaipur: With a stiff black mustache and thick glasses, M Annadurai has a severe academic quality about him. It is only when he smiles that we realise that behind the pedantic appearance, Annadurai has a warm, engaging demeanor.
The programme director of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Annadurai was...

Jaipur: There wasn't an inch of space around. The crowd, which mostly consisted of youngsters, were waiting eagerly to hear an 83-year-old speak.
Former President APJ Abdul Kalam attended and addressed two sessions at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival. In his trademark style, Kalam joked with the throng of crowd, making...

Jaipur: What do a German guy trying to rescue his love life, a French ivy league student finding herself in Old Delhi and a Sardar-ji millionaire have in common?
The above three and several other stories are now a part of a new book titled, 'The Bathtub', which is a collection...

Jaipur: The tall, bearded professor looked like any other Caucasian erudite personality. But after listening to him for a minute, one can get dazzled by the eloquence with which he quotes ancient Indian scriptures, shlokas and mantras.
On a chilly Saturday morning, noted Sanskrit scholar Sheldon Pollock was in conversation with...

Jaipur: "Everything is fiction until it is proven to be a fact," said journalist and author Raj Kamal Jha. "Fiction is what's inside of you. Facts are outside you," he added.
Jha was participating in the discussion 'clearing a space: between fact and fiction' with critically-acclaimed writer Amit Chaudhuri, along with...

Jaipur: Picture this: a regular family gathering at a relative's farmhouse. But things take a turn for the worse, when a precious objects get stolen. It is now on the teenage detectives to solve the mystery, and find the culprit.Author Ketaki Karnik, who was addressing a young audience on the...

Jaipur: For many of the audiences present on the third day of the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival, the day began with a chilly weather and warm, scintillating music.
Noted musician and former member of the Indian rock band Indian Ocean, Susmit Sen was in conversation with the audiences about "the music...

Bestselling author Amish Tripathi has announced his new series on Lord Ram. The first book that is expected to be out by October is titled 'Scion of Ikshvaku'. Not revealing much about the plot, the author said it is his fictitious and respectful interpretation of the Ramayan. Amish's Shiva Trilogy...

Jaipur: Dressed in a yellow kurta and a black jacket, Shashi Tharoor waved and greeted everyone with folded hands as he came on the stage for his session with former journalists Mihir Sharma and Amrita Tripathi on Friday noon at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival.
The politician was at the lit...

Jaipur: Javier Moro, speaking in a lilting Spanish accent, looked unruffled by the reaction to his famously-banned, recently released book 'The Red Sari'. A biography that Moro describes is more on the lines of a love story, is a biographical account of Indian National Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
In a discussion...

Jaipur: Attacked by detractors within the party of praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday accused Modi of maintaining "silence" on his ministers comments on controversial issues and conversion campaign by groups like VHP.
"Modi has to realise that his ministers simply don't understand that they are...

Jaipur: As Waheeda Rehman went up on the stage with her biographer, filmmaker Nasreen Munni Kabir, the leaking Mughal tent at the Jaipur Literature Festival 2015, erupted into thunderous applause for the beautiful actress. The session which was moderated by Arshia Sattar was a rather candid session with Waheeda Rehman...

Jaipur: It was a special session indeed when daughters of two very renowned poets of the sub continent, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Kaifi Azmi came together to discuss their illustrious fathers and their poetry in front of select audience at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival.
Hindi films actress and activist Shabana...

Jaipur: "One of the first differences between a writer and a critic is that a critic wants to sound like he's read a lot. A writer, on the other hand, may want to sound unfinished, naive and incomplete at times," said Nicholson Baker, American writer of fiction and non-fiction.
Noted personalities...

Jaipur: Dressed in a traditional blue and red sari, noted Marathi theatre personalty Sushama Deshpande spoke with palpable excitement about her upcoming project.
"I have adapted Urmila Pawar's book 'Aaydan: Notes From The Margins' on the theatre. But to call it an adaptation would be slightly wrong. I have simply edited...

Jaipur: Even though Vishal Bhardwaj has made a trilogy based on Shakespeare's work already, the director doesn't mind making a few more films based on the bard's work.
During a short chat up at the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival, the filmmaker revealed that while he hasn't planned his next film yet,...

Jaipur: Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri today won the $50,000 DSC Prize for Literature, one of South Asia's top literary awards for her book 'The Lowland'.
The prize celebrates writing on the South Asian region from writers across the globe and is given to the best novel or translations into English, of...

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